Poll Shows U.S. Still Supports NATO Defence of UK, With Republicans Most In Favour

4 Apr 2014

A new survey by the polling company YouGov has shown that whilst 60 percent of Americans still support NATO, there are wide variations on which countries they believe the US should protect.

Countries like the UK and France did well amongst those polled, but there was little appetite to assist countries like Turkey and Latvia should they be invaded.

YouGov found that whilst defending Britain proved popular with Americans, with 56 percent in favour and 23 percent against, it was a mere 21 percent in favour for Latvia. Support for Britain soared amongst Republican supporters to 68 percent, with Democrats and Independents at 54 and 52 percent respectively.

Should Parisians be unfortunate enough to see a foreign invasion force marching down the Champs-Élysées, then American’s would favour action by 48 to 29 percent. Slightly less than Britain, but still a fairly sizeable margin.

The poll was commissioned in the wake of the recent crisis in Crimea, to gauge America’s willingness to engage in a foreign war. The US public are generally viewed as reluctant to engage in any new conflicts having spent over a decade in Iraq and even longer in Afghanistan.

The findings are unlikely to be greeted with any sense of comfort in Kiev, Ukraine. When asked if America should intervene in the country just 22 percent felt they should, with 41 percent against. Ukraine is not in NATO so America would not be obliged to intervene in any case.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has been integral for the defence of the free countries of Europe since the beginning of the Cold War. Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty commits each signatory to defend every other one: “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all…”